Stupid Computer Question

[javeryh]

I've got an old (2012) HP small desktop - it's like a Dell Optiplex, you know the kind that business use for word processing, excel and internet.  Anyway, it will no longer boot up.  For months I was getting boot errors but a hard reset would get it to start most of the time.  But not any more.  Pretty sure the hard drive is dead.  I removed it and tried pulling the data off of it using another computer but it won't even get recognized as an external hard drive. I'd like to get some information off of it if possible (photos mainly) but whatever.

What I want to know is whether the computer would work again if I simply bought another internal hard drive (140GB SSD) and did a fresh Windows install off of USB?  Seems like it should...

[JDFan]

Does the case still have the windows key on it ?? - IF you do a fresh install of windows you'll need to use the key to activate the install ( Or activate using some other method). But yes it should work fine after a reinstall ( Probably should have pulled the pics etc. off during the time you were having to hard reset to get it running - or maintained a backup ! )

[javeryh]

Does the case still have the windows key on it ?? - IF you do a fresh install of windows you'll need to use the key to activate the install ( Or activate using some other method). But yes it should work fine after a reinstall ( Probably should have pulled the pics etc. off during the time you were having to hard reset to get it running - or maintained a backup ! )

Yup.  The case has the windows key.  It's Windows 7 but I was automatically "upgraded" to Windows 10 overnight one day a few years ago.  The computer in one of my cabinets (Bella's Arcade) crapped out over the summer so I was hoping to just throw this one in there while I troubleshoot (at my pace these things take months LOL).

I'm 99% sure I have everything backed up but this was the wife's computer and she isn't sure about what she might be losing from the drive.  Other than trying to plug it in as an external drive on my computer I'm not sure how to get access.  She said it's no big deal if we can't get to the data so I'm not losing any sleep over it... but it would be nice just to be sure.